


Complicated

by 3Point14



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Aliens, Clones, F/M, High School, Plotbunnies, Secret Identity, Secret Identity Fail, Secrets, Slow Burn, Stargate, Teenage Drama, Teenagers, What-If, post-season 8
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-13
Updated: 2019-12-16
Packaged: 2021-02-24 16:40:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21781090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/3Point14/pseuds/3Point14
Summary: Transferring to a new School is weird enough. Unintentionally transferring to a new school where you know someone? Weirder. Transferring to a new school where you know someone and they don't know you because you were a clone made by aliens that screwed up and cloned you 30 years younger than you actually are? Well, that's as weird as it gets. Well, he hoped anyway.
Relationships: Cassandra Fraiser/Clone Jack O'Neill
Comments: 1
Kudos: 13





	1. Chapter 1: Teenagers

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, I admit. This is kind of a weird plot bunny that popped into my head after the end of 'Fragile balance'. I have no idea where it really came from, but the bunnies demanded I write this out after watching that episode for the 10th time. The Idea is intended to be a pretty slow build and burn, but we will see how it flows. *sighs...*
> 
> Also, I feel that it is rather important to note that I did some weird mental math for the ages. Please see Note at end if you are interested in how I calculated their ages.

**Complicated**

**Chapter 1: Teenagers**

The first thing John noticed walking into this new school was how it looked exactly like his last one. The halls were lined with lockers and teens were laughing and walking to class. The colors were different. New school, New colors he guessed. Everything else? Exactly the same. He had been enthusiastic at first when he’d decided to go back to school, but now, not so much. The first school was great for a while, until he’d run into the wrong guy.

He’d been zoned out and staring off into space during his Civics Class. He didn’t need to pay attention to it, he knew first hand the effects of the Gulf War. It was an easy grade. Apparently he hadn’t really been paying attention enough, because some girl started giving him the look. Well, her boyfriend wasn’t happy. Long story short, John could most definitely defend himself. Thing was, he had no intention of ever getting with her. He’d tried that, but in the end… he couldn’t do it. It just felt wrong hitting on teen girls. He hadn’t realized how it would feel until he was actually in the situation. Of course the girls still threw themselves at him, the guys still got pissed. Highschool doesn’t change, only now… he knew what did and didn’t really matter in the long run.

He was still the cool kid and had actually gotten a bit of popularity from the incident. Until he won the wrong fight and was nearly expelled. He had to admit he might have gloated a little to much in that smug kids face.

So now, he found himself in a new school, with teens that were just like the others. He had thought about dropping out completely, but he would like to make it back into the Air Force someday. He was just…. Good at it. It was what he had always wanted to do. While it was true he wasn’t exactly the same person as before(more than physically), he just couldn’t change completely. He had found out the hard way that trying to interact with other kids his age was difficult. Well, nobody was his age. He was technically only a year old, mentally he was 49 and physically? He was Sixteen. Which was annoying as hell. 

Regardless, he had no choice but to go on as any other kid. Which is how he found himself in a new school. Walking to the office he shrugged his backpack over his shoulder and addressed the secretary politely. “Ma’am. I’m John O'Neill. I need to pick up my class schedule and locker information.”

The secretary smiled Politely at him and nodded. “Nice to meet you John. We’ll go ahead and print your new schedule if you want to have a seat. Then we can give you a little Tour.”

John pushed his tongue to the side of his cheek and nodded. “Right. Uh, Can we skip that? Can you just give me a map and I’ll find my own way?”

The woman, Mrs. Nelson according to her name tag, smiled. “Are you sure honey? I don’t want you to be late for any of your classes, we also have club rooms and after school activities. You may want to know about those.”

“Activities?” He asked blandly. 

Mrs. Nelson nodded and handed him a couple of brochures. “We have Debate Teams, Creative Writer’s Club, Journalism and even sport teams.”

John nodded. “Right.”

She smiled up at him from behind her desk as she typed up a few more things. “It’s currently First Period and I have some paperwork for your parents to sign, before wea can let you off to class.”

Rubbing the back of his neck in frustration he sighed heavily. Paperwork. He hated paperwork. “Ma’am. There are no parents. I’ll sign the documents.”

“We really can’t do that, I’m sorry.” She replied sympathetically. “We have to have a parent or guardian sign these papers.”

John reached into his bag pulling out a folder with relevant paperwork and handed it to her. “No parents Ma’am. Emancipated Minor. I have all the documents right here.”

Her eyebrows rose in shock. “Oh! I’m sorry honey. I think they said something about some different forms. Let me go ahead and find the proper paperwork. There are a few different things we’ll need you to fill out. Go ahead and have a seat sweetie.”

John sighed heavily and pulled out his game boy. This was going to be a while. 

About an hour later, he was still sitting in the office. He had just signed all the relevant documents and he guessed about now it was lunch time. As he sat there, the door to the office opened and young girl walked in. John had just been trying to put his Game boy away when he saw her. In his shock the hand holding the Game Boy missed the target and the game slipped from his grasp with a loud clutter as it skidded across the floor. The girl brushed her blonde hair behind one ear as she leaned down to pick it up and hand it to him. She smiled at him and he pinched the bridge of his nose looking down. This was just… weird. 

“Here, I’m guessing this is yours.” She said with a smile as she handed the game to him. 

John looked down with a frown. “Is it?”

She looked around, “I guess so. There’s nobody else here.”

“Huh.”

She laughed and sat next to him as he took the game. Mrs. Nelson looked over her desk and smiled at the girl. “Mr. Bishop will be right with you.” 

“Thanks Mrs. Nelson.” She replied then sat back awkwardly. John did his best to look natural as he flipped through some of the brochures the secretary had handed him. He found one he decided to read up on and the girl leaned over to look at it. “ JAFROTC? That’s a mouthful.”

John nodded looking away. “Yeah, they really gotta think of something better.”

She laughed and was about to say something when the door to the counselor's office opened. A young man walked out and the counselor, ‘Mr. Bishop’ looked at the girl warmly. “Ms. Frasier. Good to see you again. Come in.”

She stood up grudgingly and smiled to John and then walked into the office. John watched after her still reeling from the whole thing. He looked up to the secretary wondering how much longer he was going to be here, only to see that she was already peering over the desk at him. With an amused expression at that. John cleared his throat hoping she hadn’t gotten any strange ideas. “We all done here?”

Mrs. Nelson smiled. “Yes honey, here you are. Have a good rest of your day.”

John nodded and handed her back all the brochures except one. She looked over to him with a knowing smile. “JROTC?”

He sighed. “I’m only thinking about it.”

She nodded as she put the brochures away and handed him his class schedule and locker information as well as the requested map.

As John walked out of the office he smacked himself. How in the hell had he not known that this was the same school Frasier’s kid went to? This was just weird. Cassie was his age. Sorta. Ugh, the age thing made his head hurt. He’d known that girl since she was a kid. Well not him exactly. It didn’t matter. Nothing about this mattered. She was just another teen in this school that he wouldn’t relate to… and he was tired of it. Hopefully, she wouldn’t say anything about him to the Doc. Of course, one chance run in shouldn’t be enough for a conversation with her mom. He couldn’t remember if that was the type of things Teens talked about to their parents.

~*~*~

Sitting in the back of Calculus, Cassie couldn’t help but think about what her counselor had said, “I know you’re worried about your grades, but you’re a very bright girl Ms. Frasier. A couple weeks off school won’t hurt considering what you must be going through.”

Cassie had shaken her head and rolled her eyes at him, but he took it in stride. She didn’t want to be the one everyone whispered about. She had gotten enough of that after she had been taken out of class in the middle of the day. Shaking the words off she began to take her books out of her bag when a new guy walked in. It was the boy with the Gameboy. He had appeared so clumsy before, but now he had a certain relaxed stroll as he moved through the room. He sat in the seat farthest from her and didn’t even seem to notice Cassie’s presence. His eyes were glued to the board as he took his books out and began writing the words written there. Within a few minutes the teacher walked in and addressed the class. “Well, we have a new student here. John, would you like to stand up and introduce yourself?”

John looked up from his notebook and glanced around for a second before going back to his notebook as he spoke. “No, Not really.”

Ms. Jules frowned and looked at him concerned. “Are you sure?”

He turned away for a moment as if annoyed then looked back up. Clearing his throat he stood and glanced around the room. “Hi, I’m John. I’m a Gemini, my favorite color is Perido and if I could have dinner with anyone in the world it would be Winona Rider.”

“Winona Rider?” One kid asked confused.

John’s eyebrows rose, “You don’t think she’s hot?”

Another kid laughed, “Well…”

“Thank you Mr. O’Neill.” The teacher interrupted with an amused expression. The class giggled for a second, before the Teacher cleared her throat. “Alright, well… We just had a recap of last week's work yesterday. One of your classmates can help get you caught up.”

Cassie had looked up at the last name and had now turned more fully to the new kid examining him closely. He didn’t appear to paying any attention to what was going on. He was mostly taking notes and occasionally looking at his watch. This was the last class of the day, he was probably anxious to get out of school. The rest of the class went on for some time and a couple of kids tried talking to him. They asked where he was from, ‘here’ apparently and why he had transferred, ‘just moved’ was his answer. He wasn’t rude about his replies and he looked like he enjoyed making them guess(like he was purposely trying to be mysterious), but other than that, there was nothing really all that odd about him. The bell rang again for the end of school and Cassie watched as everyone left. She made her way out of the room as well, watching John as he made his way through the halls. She followed him down to his locker where he was busy putting away his things with no particular haste.

“Hey,” She said from behind him, “John, Right?

He whipped around swiftly closing his locker as his dark brown eyes gave her a long once over. Eventually he nodded and smiled. “Oh. Cassie.”

Cassie frowned, “How did you know my name?”

There was a long pause then he looked down to her composition notebook and smiled flicking it with his forefinger. “English Lit?”

She looked down at her notebook where he had indicated and noticed her name scrawled across it. She mentally kicked herself. That made sense. She laughed and brushed some hair out of her eyes before looking back up at him. “Right..”

He smiled and nodded before turning to grab a helmet from his locker. Wait a second… he couldn’t possibly have a… Her train of thought was cut off as he then shut it again and slung his bag over one shoulder and began walking. Cassie balked at him,’ that’s it?’ She followed after him for a moment, “Wait! John. I have a question.”

He smiled and continued walking. “I might have an answer.”

She rolled her eyes at his attitude and followed after him. “Okay, so this might be strange, but are you by any chance related to a Jack O’Neill?”

He stopped right as he made it to the door and turned around. “Who?”

“Colonel Jack O’Neill? He’s in the Air force.” She said calmly.

He looked at her for a moment then put a pair of sunglasses on. He then pushed backward against the door with his body until it was all the way open. He held it there for a moment and made a hand motion for her to follow out the door. She stepped out and he closed it, putting a hand up. “I mean, there are a ton of O’Neill’s out there. I doubt I’m related though.”

“Are you sure?” she asked as she followed him down to the parking lot until the were standing in front of a fairly impressive Motorcycle. She stopped dead in her tracks as he slung a long leg over one side and sat down.

He looked at her seriously for a moment before putting a hand on one of his hips. “What was his name again? Jim?”

“Jack. Colonel Jack O’Neill.” She stated as clearly as she could.

He shook his head and shrugged. “I mean, it doesn’t really sound familiar. And I know for a fact nobody in my family is military. Why? He owe you money?”

Cassie laughed, “No. He’s just a family friend. You have the same last name, I thought maybe… I don’t know. I guess it’s a common name.”

He shrugged once more and put his helmet on. He then kicked back his stand and jumped up revving his bike. The noise was ridiculously loud, drawing a lot of curious stares. He looked at her once more and said loudly over the engine, “I don’t know. Sorry.”

She nodded, “It’s fine. I guess I’ll see you around?”

“Sure.” He said and then motioned for her to step back. As soon as she was clear of the bike, he did a mock 2 finger salute and rode off.

Two things struck Cassie in that moment. One being that his swagger and attitude was so weirdly familiar and...cool. Two being that he didn’t really seem interested in getting to know anyone. As she watched his bike disappear down the road, she suddenly heard her name being called. Turning around she saw Dominic walking up to her. “Hey, what was that about?”

Cassie shrugged, “Thought maybe he was related to someone I knew. I was just asking him about it He’s not I guess.”

He gave her a long look but nodded. “Okay, Well if we don’t hurry we’re gonna miss our bus.”

Cassie’s eyes widened, “Oh! Shit!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun Fact Regarding the Age difference.
> 
> I counted the candles on Cassie's Cake in the episode 'Rite of Passage' and determined she was 13 in that episode, which was season 5. If we say each season of the show is one year. that would put her at 15ish in season 7, which is the season that Jr. Jack is cloned and he was determined to be about 15. Okay... are you still with me? So this story takes place Somewhere, between Season 7 and 8. And taking into account the fact that Jr. Jack is cloned in the early part of the season vs. Cassie's birthday being in the later part of the season, I'm going to assume his birthday is earlier in the year than hers. I'm saying "Air date" is his birthday(though technically we have no confirmation on his EXACT age). Coincidentally, the "Air date" for her is later in the year. I was actually contemplating just adjusting their ages to fit the story, but when I did some digging I was like... huh. Well, they are actually only a couple of months apart in 'physical' age.
> 
> I'm not entirely sure if this form of calculating age is accurate, but I am not going to go into to much digging for "Accurate" dates. Needless to say, they are both around the age of 16 (Sorta). I wonder if the writers intended the age difference like that or if it was just a happy coincidence.


	2. Chapter 2: The Grind

**Complicated**

Chapter 2

As he sped off down the road, John’s heart was racing. He hadn’t really felt this level of panic in a long time, not since he was a.. Teen. Damn Loki and his screwed up attempt at cloning! He really hadn’t thought much about what life was going to be like as a Teen before he had jumped at the opportunity to start over. Really he had just been kind of in a state of complete shock when everything had happened. Finding out that YOU were the clone was difficult enough. Now? Things were getting a bit… complicated.

He felt torn about how he had shrugged off Cassie’s questions. He’d completely ignored her in his last class. To be honest, he wasn’t entirely sure what to do about it. He had a really strict Non-Disclosure agreement with the Airforce. Ignoring her and staying out of the way felt like the most effective course of action. Which, was difficult anyway.

Returning home John was greeted by Homer who was extremely excited to see him. He smiled fondly and pet the dog, before opening the door for potty time. He ate some leftover chinese while he worked on his homework, then showered and went to bed. As he was setting his alarm, Homer hopped up on his bed and lay down next to him. He gave the Golden Retriever a good pat before turning over and falling asleep. 

“Jack! Jack!” A familiar voice shouted.

John turned around to see Kawalski in tears. He was looking through a hole in the bed as he spoke to him. “Kawalski?”

“Jack! Oh God it hurts!!” The man screamed trying to keep from thrashing around. His eyes were red as he looked back into John’s eyes. “Jack, please! Don’t let me turn into one of those things! I want you to kill me first ya hear?”

John shook his head, “No! Damnit. We can call the Tok’ra. They can get this thing out of you. You just gotta hold on for me.”

“No. I can’t.” He shouted. “This thing is… It’s too strong!”

“Damnit Kawalski!! That is an order!” he shouted. “Just hang in there. The Tok’ra can take care of this.”

John felt a hand on his shoulder and he turned to look. It was Carter. She was looking right at him with a mournful expression on her face. “Sir? Have you figured out what you want to say yet?”

“Say when?” He asked confused.

Carter cleared her throat uncomfortably and looked down for a moment. She took a deep breath and let it out again before returning her focus to him. As she spoke, her eyes glowed and her voice suddenly pitched much deeper. “At Kawalki’s funeral.”

“He’s not going to have a funeral! He’s right here!” John shouted.

“He is not.” She replied in the same voice. Calm beyond all reason.

“We’re going to take him to the Tok’ra. They’ll get that Goa'uld out of him!” He said spinning around to look back to Kawalski. Only… Kawalski wasn’t there. The room had gone completely dark and in the man’s place was another bed. This one was different. On the bed with a single light illuminating the figure was a completely bandaged body. “Daniel?”

The next second was a blur as a machine went off indicating no heartbeat. John tried to get closer, but it felt like he was only getting further away. He tried his best to run but as soon as he took another step he was falling. He felt himself land painfully on a concrete slab. As John looked around he recognized the room immediately. This was the room he had been imprisoned in while captured by Ba’al. As soon as he stood up, a voice from behind spoke. “You know. You’re not him.”

John whipped around to see Daniel staring at him. “What are you talking about?”

“Ba’al. He’s going to torture you until you give up and tell him what he wants to know.” Daniel said evenly. He walked over leaning down in John’s face. “And you'll give him the answers too. You won’t be able to resist.”

“No!” He said firmly. “I would never.”

The older man sighed shaking his head. Since when had Daniel become so tall? “It’s not your fault you’ll give us all away.”

“Bullshit!” John shouted. “I didn’t last time and I won’t now.”

Daniel shook his head and looked down. “You will.”

“No I won’t”

Blue eyes locked on deep brown, “You will. But it’s okay.”

“Okay!?” how can you say that?” 

Daniel studied him for a moment. The noise of shifting stone drew his attention. The dial on the side of the room was spinning along with the rest of the room. This time: however, it did not stop at 90 degrees and instead kept going. John felt himself slipping. He frantically glanced around the room finding Daniel standing as if nothing was happening. “Why?”

Daniel bent his knees to the floor and gripped John’s hand firmly until the only thing keeping John in the room was his friend’s grip. Then the man leaned into John’s ear and whispered. “Because you’re not him.”

John watched in slow motion as Daniel let go and watching him tumble into darkness without the least bit of guilt.

Waking up with a scream John quickly turned the light on in his room. Homer scooched up to him and began licking his hand. Blood was still pumping in his ears and John’s panicked panting wasn’t helping. He looked down to Homer and began petting the dog’s soft golden fur. Looking at the clock it read 4:35am. Sighing, he swung his legs over the side of the bed and decided to go ahead and get his day started.

Throwing on a pair of sweats, he grabbed Homer’s leash and proceeded to go for a Jog around the woods. Homer was only too happy to accompany him and John had to admit that after all those years of being alone and struggling with the idea, getting a dog was actually rather rewarding. The only thing that had really stopped him before was his busy work schedule, but now? He had more than enough time. He didn’t have to worry about being stuck off world with nobody to feed his pet. 

Once he was done with his jog, he filled Homer’s bowl and then grabbed a glass of water. Showering he then settled down in front of his T.V. and turned on his playstation to play a bit of Grand Turismo before school.

Some hours later, his watch beeped at him and he grabbed his bag and helmet. He quickly gave Homer another couple of pets before donning his riding Jacket and taking off to school. He arrived early enough to grab a bite to eat from the cafeteria then headed to his locker. Just as he was putting his helmet away, there was a loud sound of a locker slamming closed a few feet down the hall. There were quite a few kids already at their lockers, but he managed to ascertain the origin of the noise. 

Cassie was leaning against her locker looking up at some dark haired boy with an annoyed expression. “Dominic. Really? I already told you. I’m just trying to get through some things.”

The boy scoffed, “Really? Because it looks like you’ve just been ignoring me these past weeks.”

John felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up and he turned back toward his locker leaning his head against the cool metal, ‘Do not interfere. Do not interfere.’ He told himself.

“What do you expect? You think I wanted any of this to happen?” She replied loud enough for John to hear her over the commotion of early morning halls. “I can’t believe you’re acting like this.”

“Me? I’m the one acting some kind of way?” He said loudly. “All you do is hide away in your books and give me excuses about homework.”

John glanced to the side to see Cassie open her mouth as if to retort but at that exact moment the bell rang. Instead of replying she simply walked away. Good for her.

Jack’s first class of the day was pretty boring. Precalculus mostly made him yawn. The second class wasn’t much better. It was supposed to be gym, but the Teacher was out, so mostly all the students just sat around on the bleachers doing assignments for other classes. That kid from earlier(Dominic?) was in this class too, but either he didn’t notice John or he didn’t care. Much to John’s relief. After that was lunch, which was crowded, so rather than eat in the cafeteria, John took his lunch outside in the courtyard. He wasn’t the only one apparently. Cassie was sitting under a tree listening to music. He steered clear as much as he could. She didn’t notice him anyway. She was writing in a journal, too busy concentrating on whatever it was to look around. She didn’t have any food with her, but maybe she just wasn’t hungry.

When the bell rang he gathered his tray dumping it in the trash and walked to his next class. When he walked in, the teacher had him introduce himself and then she assigned him a seat… right next to Cassie. “Cassandra can help you out until you get all caught up.”

Cassie Smiled, “Hey again.”

“Hey.” Jack said awkwardly.

The teacher began the lesson, which mostly involved showing slides of notes on a projector and then telling everyone to turn to page 93 and answer questions 1a through 3b. It was fairly easy work. All the answers were in the book, but some of them weren’t. He was just looking through his notes to try to find the references to single cells, when the proper notes were handed to him. He looked up to see Cassie smile at him. “Uh thanks. I was already looking for it anyway. I mean… I wrote it here somewhere.”

She nodded. “I know, but the faster we get the questions answered, the more time we have to just chill.”

He sighed and nodded as he found the notes pertaining to the questions and finished up rather quickly. Handing the notes back he said a quick ‘thanks’ before putting his sunglasses on and leaning back in his chair to take a nap. 

“Boring right?”

John looked up and lifted his shades. Cassie was looking his way expectantly. He just shrugged and looked out the window.

Cassie cleared her throat quietly. “Listen, I'm sorry about yesterday. I wasn’t trying to be weird or anything.”

John turned back to look at her. “You aren’t weird.”

Looking down she brushed her hair behind her ear shyly. “I just didn’t mean to freak you out or anything.”

John shrugged again. He didn’t really want to engage in a conversation with her. It would just make things more difficult to maintain, but he also didn’t want her thinking of herself as a weirdo. He still cared about her. He had missed going over to Janet’s with Sam and everyone for dinner. Cassie had always been like this, sweet and smiley.

When he didn’t respond, Cassie looked away awkwardly biting her lip.

Jack kicked himself. “Hey, I’m sorry. It’s just.. “

Cassie shook her head. “You don’t have to apologize. I get it.”

“You do?” He asked confused.

She nodded, “Yeah. I mean, moving to a new place is kinda jarring. At least, it was for me.”

Oh. Right. He nodded and smiled. “Have some experience with that?”

“Yeah,” she said biting her lip. “I was younger when I moved, but… it was really hard getting used to a new place.”

John could only imagine. He had heard that she had some trouble adjusting at first. He didn’t expect any less. She HAD moved from a whole different planet. Leaning his arm on the table he turned to look at her. “You had people to help right?”

“Well yeah,” She said smiling. A split second later she frowned. “My mom was a big help.”

“You like your mom?” He asked. Last her heard they were arguing again. The near death experience had brought them closer together, but teenagers will be teenagers.

Cassie looked at him for a moment, then turned to stare out the window as well. “Yeah. I like her.”

John wasn’t sure what had happened to change her mood so drastically, but he didn't get the chance to ask before the bell rang and he was off to Shop Class. He spent half of shop going over the rules for safety with the teacher and then he was told he would have to take some papers for his parents to sign regarding permission and safety.

Once more he had to explain to the Teacher that he had no parents and he had all the legal documents to prove it. Unfortunately he hadn’t thought to bring them today and he had to sit quietly and watch the other students work. After the class, the teacher held him back for a moment to tell him that he would get the stuff for John to sign from the office and he would need them to sign off on it before he could allow him to work with tools. As frustrating as it was, he nodded in understanding and eventually left for the day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Dream sequence in this is a bit weird. I understand that SG-1 hadn't met the Tok'ra until after Kawalski was dead, but that is just how dreams are some times. Also, I'm writing the whole high school thing from my experience in high school around the 2000's so if you are confused by anything... well... just keep in mind that I am probably from a different generation. lol
> 
> I hope y'all enjoyed this chapter. There is plenty more to come.


End file.
